Door for safes and vaults.



E. S. PILLARD.

DOOR FOR SAPBS AND VAULTS.

urmouxon nun 81221218. 1901.

992,98 1 Patented May 23, 1911.

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E. s. PILLARD. DOOR FOR SAFES AND VAULTS.

' APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 18, 1907.

Patented May 23, 1911.

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EDWARD S. PILLARD, 0F PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

DOOR FOR SAFES AND VAULTS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 23, 1911.

Application filed September 18, 1907. Serial No. 393,468.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD S. PILLARD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Philadelphia, county of Philadelphia, and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Doors for Safes and Vaults, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to doors for safes or vaults.

Prior patented vault and safe doors have been provided either with a single outside door, or a double door looked to a central mullion whether the doors have been semicircular or quadrilateral. It is obvious that any vault or safe door is only as strong as the weakest part and the back bolts on any safe or vault door are placed at that point so that the hinges of the door cannot be removed and the door opened at that point. As the back bolts are only put on such doors for the foregoing purpose, a double door locked to a mullion at the center, is only as strong as its strength at points of looking to the mullion which are the opening points, and consequently, doors of this character are considerably weaker than a single door.

Having the foregoing weaknesses of double, mullion-locked doors in view, the present invention has for its objects, among others, first, to provide a double door for vaults and safes, the respective doors of which are controlled by their separate systems of locks and bolt-work, and hinged in a novel manner so that either may be opened independently of the other and at the outer edge instead of the inner edge and folded or swung back on one another or may be opened or closed as a single door or one opened and swung back on the other and both swung open as a unit; second, to entirely dispense with the mullion heretofore employed and to provide means for the direct engagement of the doors where they meet, thereby making them practically as strong as a single door; third, to provide a novel arrangement of means for drawing the doors closed to effecta very tight fit in the vestibule of the safe or vault which can be operated to tighten or re lease both doors simultaneously or release one of the doors regardless of whether the other door cannot be opened for any reason.

Among the advantages obtained by the present invention are, first, obviating the necessity of having either a double entrance or an emergency door in the vault; second, re-

ducing the space required in which to swing the door in opening or closing it so that but substantially only one-half the space heretofore required in which to swing a vault or safe door is necessary; third, enabling both doors to be swung as a unit or separately and permitting one of them to be opened as an emergency door if anything is the matter with the other door, thereby preventing a lock-out; fourth, obtaining great strength with simplicity of construction and ease of operation.

I wish it understood that the doors may be of difi'erent desired shapes; and that various changes may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

The invention is fully set forth hereinafter and its novel features are recited in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings :-Figure l is a front view showing the doors closed, and Fig. 2, a section on line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

The front wall of a burglar-proof vault is shown at 1 and the double doors 2 and?) are shown as each constituting a semi-circle, their exterior meeting line being shown at 4:.

The door jamb may be of the usual stepped construction to prevent the introduction of a liquid explosive, but I have shown it as of the tapered construction commonly employed in vaults made of armor plate. Where the doors abut, they are provided with an interlocking joint 5 extending from top to bottom of the doors. This interlocking joint enables me to dispense with the use of bolts at the meeting faces of the doors and to provide means of many times the resisting power of numerous bolts at this point but in its broad aspect this feature of the invention is set forth and claimed in my application Serial No. 390,7 33, filed Aug. 30, 1907. The doors may be packed to prevent the introduction of a liquid explosive.

Unlike ordinary safe or vault doors which are hinged at their outer edges, the doors of the present invention are hinged at their inner edges to open at their outer edges. Both doors are hung by a single massive hinge which is in the shape of a yoke 6 of sufficient size to permit the doors to be swung through it, this yoke being supported from the front of the vault or safe by the hinges 7. The

door 2 is provided with upper and lowem received in a slot of the former and hinged thereto by hinge pins or pintles which have a head at one end and adjusting nut-s at the other end, ball-bearings 11 being provided to minimize friction.

In order that the parts may be locked together to swing as a unit or to be swung separately, I provide a locking-bolt slid ing in keepers 21 and operated by a hand wheel and rack and pinion mechanism 22.- When the bolt is shot, the doors are locked together but when retracted, they may be swung independently.

The present invention contemplates the provision of a pressure mechanism which can be operated regardless of position of the doors in relation to each other. On the door 3 there is journaled a shaft which carries a pressure cam 31 at its outer end to engage the pressure fixture 32 on the front of the vault. Journaled on door 2 is a shaft 33 which carries a fixed clutch 34 at one end and at the other end it is connected to the end of shaft 30 by a universal joint 35 and gearing 35 Journaled on door 2 is a shaft 33 which carries a cam 31 engageable with a pressure fixture 32 on the front of the vault. The shaft 33 carries a fixed clutch section 34 There is a short shaft which carries sliding clutches 42 and 43, respectively, these clutches being splined to said shaft and adapted to be made to engage the clutches 34 and 34 by sliding them by hand into engagement therewith. The shaft 40 is revolved by worm-gearing 50 which is operated by a hand wheel 51.

The usual combination lock dials are shown at 60 on the door 2 and at 61 on the door 3 and the handles for operating the bolt-work of the respective doors are shown at 7 O and 71. I

Carried by the hinge 6 is a sliding spring actuated latch or pin 80 which is adapted to take into an elongated slot 81 in a bracket 82 on the door 2. The slot is of sufficient depth to allow the requisite play when the pressure system is operated but causes the door 2 to be engaged with the hinge and to close with it at all times except when the spring latch is retracted, thus facilitating easy closing of the door.

As shown by the various dotted lines and positions, either door may be swung open or closed independently of the other door (the bolt 20 being retracted) or both doors may be swung open as a unit (the bolt 20 being shot). For instance, when the-door 3 is swung open and back upon, or substantially so, the door 2, one half of the entrance is open. Thus, if the door 2 cannot be opened for any reason, the door 3 may be used as 'an emer enc door and similarl if the door 3 cannot be opened, the door 2 may be opened and used as an emergency door. However the door may be opened by sw nging one back upon the other and both swung open together or the doors may be swung open as a unit bodily from the entrance. The yoke like construction of the hinge 6 permits all of these movements and enables the door to be used when there is a limited amount of space available for swinging of the door as it will be seen that only about one-half the usual space is required to swing the doors. In case one door is allowed to remain closed or cannot be opened, the universal joint 35 permits opening of one door without opening the other and thus dispenses with a separate pressure system for each door, while, in case one door is allowed to remain closed or cannot be opened, the clutch (either 42 or 43) controlling the pressure system of that door, is slid by hand out of locked engagement with its companion (34 or 34;), thereby allowing the use of the pressure system on the door which can be swung.

The bolt-Work and lock-work may be of any approved construction.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination with a single shiftable hinge, of a double door, the members of which are hinged to and bodily movable with said shiftable hinge whereby said door members may be independently opened or independently closed or swung with the hinge as a unit.

2. A double door for safes or vaults, in combination with a single hinge of yoke shapev for both of the members of said door, so constructed and arranged that the members of the door are adapted to be swung through said hinge.

3. A double door for safes or vaults the members of which are adapted to open at their outermost parts and which have meeting inner edges, in combination with means hinging the door members at their meeting faces so that they may be swung outwardly completely open independently of each other on said inner hinged parts.

4:. A double door for safes or vaults the members of which have meeting inner edges, in combination with a single yoke hinge, hinged to the respective door members at their meeting edges above and below ghem and of greater size than the door memers.

5. A double door for safes or vaults, in combination with means for hinging the members of said door at their inner parts so that they may be swung independently on said hinge points, and means for locking the door members together so that they may be swung as a unit.

6. The combination with a double vault or safe door, of swinging hinging means to which the members of said double door are hinged so that they may be swung independently of each other, means for securing one of the members of said double door to said hinging means, and means for locking the doors together so that they may swing together as a unit with the hinging means.

7 The combination with a double vault or safe door and means engaging the members thereof so that they may be swung independently of each other or together, of a pressure system comprising pressure devices carried by the respective members of the door connected together for operation regardless of the respective positions of the members of said door, and means for operating said pressure system.

8. The combination with a double vault or safe door and means engaging the members thereof so that they may be swung independently of each other or together, of a pressure system comprising pressure devices carried by the respective members of the door connected together for operation regardless of the respective positions of the members of said door, means for operating said pressure system and means for rendering inactive either part of the pressure system without interfering with the operation of the other part thereof.

9. The combination with a double door for safes or vaults, of means hinging the inner members of said door so that they may be swung independently of each other, and a pressure system comprising means on the respective door members, a universal joint connecting the pressure means of one door member with that of the other door member, operating means on one of the door members, and clutches controlling the operation of the respective parts of the pressure system whereby the pressure means of one door member may be operated independently of that of the other door member and regardless of the positions of the door members.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

EDWARD S. PILLARD.

Witnesses:

MARY F. LYoNs, J. S. WILLIAMS.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

